While Britain, Norway and Portugal are creating state-of-the-art electric infrastructures for E.V.’s and enticing urban commuters with time-saving driving privileges, buyers of electric and hybrid vehicles in other countries are tempted with monetary incentives like tax credits or rebates.

The number of electric vehicles in European garages is still modest. The European Union’s ambition is to reduce by half the number of conventionally fueled cars in cities within 20 years and to phase them out entirely by 2050....

... In the United States electric vehicles are eligible for a maximum federal tax credit of $7,500; the battery size determines eligibility and the size of the credit. Some states sweeten the pot further with rebates or lane-use permits for freeways.
...

European ... perks are largely based on the vehicle’s level of carbon emissions, determined by standards linked to Europe’s climate change targets. Whether the vehicle is pure electric, hybrid, natural gas-fueled or propelled by another means is largely irrelevant; the key figure is carbon emissions. Logically, electric cars with zero carbon emissions qualify for the largest incentives.

Here is a sampling of incentives that European governments offer to buyers of environmentally friendly vehicles:

AUSTRIA In addition to tax breaks, owners of hybrid and other low-carbon vehicles benefit from a fuel consumption tax that pays bonuses to passenger cars with low carbon dioxide output. Alternative fuel vehicles, including hybrids, qualify for as much as $1,120 in annual bonuses.FRANCE In a similar program, a maximum benefit paid for new e-car buyers is $7,000, while buyers of high-carbon-emissions vehicles can pay penalties of up to $3,650. France sees itself as a future leader in e-mobility and has begun construction of 400,000 charging points, expected to be in operation by 2015. GERMANY Germany’s new post-Fukushima energy plan envisions great things for e-transport, a segment where this auto-producing nation has lagged. One proposal is for a $1.4 billion program of electromobility research and development; rebates are not in the mix. The current five-year grace period, during which private owners of E.V.’s are exempt from the annual motor vehicle tax, is being doubled to 10 years.BRITAIN E.V. buyers can count on $3,200 to $8,000 in rebates until at least 2016. In London, electric-car drivers save the daily congestion charge (about $13) and enjoy limited free parking. Moreover, exemption from a vehicle excise duty (a car tax based on carbon emissions) could be worth up to an additional $1,500 a year.
...NORWAY Norway, and in particular the city of Oslo, is the Shangri-La of electric transportation, though no monetary rebates are offered. The country provides other privileges, including the world’s largest E.V. parking lot as well as free charging. E.V. drivers on their way to work in the morning can use taxi and bus lanes, cruise through tolls without stopping and park free. Buyers are exempted from a wide range of taxes, fees, import duty and congestion charges.PORTUGAL Portugal’s nationwide public network of 1,350 charging stations was visionary, enabling E.V. drivers to travel anywhere in the country. Buyers of electric vehicles and passenger cars with other exclusively renewable energy systems receive a premium of $7,000 and an additional $2,100 if they scrap their old car, as well as income tax relief of up to 30 percent, or $1,114.
...

In "Plug-and-Play Batteries: Trying Out a Quick-Swap Station for E.V.’s: also in the July 29, 2011 New York Times Bradley Berman notes

THERE may be fewer than 500 electric cars
on Danish roads, but signs of progress in building an infrastructure to
support a larger population of E.V.’s. are already evident.

The first electric car battery swapping station in Europe opened here
last month, the initial site in a network of 24/7 fully automated
drive-through stations. There, the lithium-ion
battery packs, which weigh about 600 pounds, will be removed from
specially designed cars and replaced with a fully charged pack. The swap
takes five minutes.
...

Better Place Denmark, the local branch of the Silicon Valley company. It
is building the swap stations and related businesses in Australia,
China, Denmark, Israel (where the world’s first swap station is) and
eventually, the United States.

Better Place has 19 more battery swap stations in the works for Denmark.
“By the first of April, we will cover the whole country,” Mr. Hansen
said, referring to 2012, with stations no more than 40 miles apart.

At this point, only Renault
is making cars designed for quick battery swaps. The company stretched
the gasoline-powered version of its Fluence, a Corolla-like sedan, by
five inches to accommodate the suitcase-size 24-kilowatt-hour battery
pack. The resulting Fluence Z.E., for zero emissions, goes into full
production later this year, available in either swappable or
fixed-battery versions.
...

Swipe a membership card at the
entrance and the garage door to the battery-change track, similar to a
carwash tunnel, opens. Pull forward and the robot takes over — the
driver simply shifts into neutral and lets go.
As the car is guided forward, it’s lifted a few inches....About a minute into the experience, the
dashboard message indicates empty battery — meaning it’s gone — after
which there’s no air-conditioning, although music and other functions
continue. During most of Denmark’s year, the brief lack of climate
control would not be a problem,... four
and a half minutes after entering the station, the car had a fresh
battery. The sedan was lowered and we pulled out of the tunnel ready to
drive another 100 miles or so, according to Renault’s range estimate....

Better Place subscribers purchase their cars, but not the expensive
battery packs. For a fixed fee of about $350 a month, they will lease
access to the batteries, swap stations and charge points.

Renault says it intends to produce more than 100,000 Fluence Z.E. sedans
through 2015, although availability in Denmark will be limited. Another
battery-swappable model from Renault, the Zoe Z.E. — a smaller
hatchback more suited to Danish tastes — is expected next year. But it
could be a number of years before other carmakers produce models that
work with the Better Place stations.

The economics are challenging. Each station costs “a couple of million
Euros” — about $3 million — to build, Mr. Hansen said. That is a big
investment for stations that might barely be used in the next couple of
years.
The Better Place business model is a top-down, central-office approach
to electric car charging infrastructure.

by Bradley
Berman
FOR FULL STORY GO TO:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/automobiles/a-plug-and-play-plan-for-ev-batteries.html

Friday, July 29, 2011

Investing Just 0.034 Percent More of Global GDP Could Halve Deforestation, Generate Millions of Jobs and Combat Climate Change

Investing an additional US$40 billion a year in the forestry sector
could halve deforestation rates by 2030, increase rates of tree planting
by around 140 per cent by 2050, and catalyze the creation of millions
of new jobs according to a report by the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP).

Backed by the right kinds of enabling policies, such an
investment - equivalent to about two-thirds more than what is spent on
the sector today - could also sequester or remove an extra 28 per cent
of carbon from the atmosphere, thus playing a key role in combating
climate change.

Forests in a Green Economy: A Synthesis was unveiled during this year's World Environment Day (WED) celebrations. The theme, Forests: Nature at Your Service, underscores the multitude of benefits that forests provide to humanity.

WED
2011 also comes during the UN-declared International Year of the
Forests, which is in part focused on the critical links between forests
and the transition to a low carbon, resource efficient green economy.

"WED
2011 comes precisely 12 months before the Rio+20 meeting in Brazil next
year where the world will come together to try and forge a new and more
decisive response to the sustainable development challenge of the 21st
century," said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP
Executive Director.

"The Green Economy initiative has identified
forestry as one of the ten central sectors capable of propelling a
transition to a low carbon, resource efficient, employment-generating
future if backed by investment and forward-looking policies," he added.

"There
are already many encouraging signals; the annual net forest loss since
1990 has fallen from around eight million to around five million
hectares and in some regions such as Asia, the Caribbean and Europe
forest area has actually increased over those 20 years," said Mr.
Steiner.

The report also spotlights how the area of planted
forests including those as part of agroforestry schemes on farms and
plantations have grown from 3.6 million hectares in 1990 to just under
five million hectares in 2010.
Groups like WWF are cataloguing
information and experience in respect to plantations to maximize
biodiversity and ecosystem services.

It shows in areas such as
Brazil's Atlantic rainforest how more creative tree planting can assist
in providing buffer zones around intact forests allowing regeneration
and recovery.

"There is also an increasing engagement from the
private sector in these nature-based assets and mobilization by cities
and communities across the globe in tree planting efforts. Meanwhile,
new kinds of smart market mechanisms, ranging from REDD+ to payments for
ecosystem services, are emerging," he added.

"WED is a day for
everyone to act in support of forests and to nurture these green shoots
of a Green Economy as the world looks towards how best to accelerate,
scale-up and above all implement these transitions in Rio in 2012," he
said.

The Forests in a Green Economy synthesis also builds on the
work of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a broad
partnership hosted by UNEP.

It underlines that natural capital
such as forests can represent up to 90 per cent of the GDP of the rural
poor. India is among a dozen countries taking the global findings of
TEEB into national assessments that in turn could translate the value of
nature and its services into national accounts.

The synthesis
report spotlights other ways in which governments are using
forward-looking policies nationally that can also catalyze market-based
instruments, such as credit, microfinance, leases and certification
schemes.

For example, the host of this year's World
Environment Day festivities, India, has recently approved a national
initiative to increase forest cover over five million hectares, improve
quality of forest cover over another five million hectares and improve
crucial ecosystem services provided by forests, such as hydrological
services. The new Green India Plan aims to increase forest-based
incomes for three million households.

Over 80 per cent of
the US$8 billion National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which
underwrites at least 100 days of paid work for rural households in
India, is invested in water conservation, irrigation and land
development. This has generated three billion working days-worth of
employment benefiting close to 60 million households.

"We
must accelerate investments for protecting the planet's forest resources
as recommended in the 'Forests in a Green Economy' report. We must
leverage forward-looking policies that conserve and improve the quality
of our forests, while generating employment and socio-economic returns
for local communities - much like the Green India Mission that we have
launched. An integrated approach such as this will prioritize
conservation and sustainable management of forests, and truly enable
forests to play a critical role in greening the economy," said India's
Minister of Environment Jairam Ramesh.

"I must add that the road
to a Green Economy needs a new economic paradigm that can bring out the
true value of our natural capital. Here in India, we have initiated a
major exercise on the valuation of our natural capital, and will
incorporate this into our mainstream national accounts by 2015," he
said.
Globally, to undertake a green transition, an additional
average investment of US$ 40 billion per year?or around 0.034 per cent
of global GDP- in the forest sector is required, starting with US$15
billion in 2011 and increasing up to approximately US$57 billion by
2050.

Carefully planned investments would also contribute to increased employment from 25 million today to 30 million by 2050.

To
mobilize public and private investments in forests, the UNEP report
emphasizes the role of the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) and
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+).

PES
is a scheme of voluntary transactions aimed to compensate land owners
for providing ecosystem services to society, such as carbon storage,
watershed protection or biodiversity conservation.

REDD+
recognizes the importance of forests for carbon sequestration through
conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of
forest carbon stocks. To support these activities, this mechanism allows
financial transfers between industrialized and developing countries and
between national level agencies and communities and landowners.

Both
mechanisms provide new avenues for leveraging political attention, and
much-needed private, public and bilateral finance. For example:

In
Ecuador, the local government in the town of Pimampiro pays US$6 to
US$12 per hectare per year to a small group of farmers to conserve
forest and natural grassland in the area surrounding the town's water
source.

Norway's contribution to the Amazon Fund in
Brazil is achieving a new form of partnership for realizing
deforestation reduction targets. In 2010, Norway announced a grant of
US$ 1 billion to Indonesia in return for agreed measures to tackle
deforestation and degradation. Under the terms of the agreement,
Indonesia has announced a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear
natural forests and peatlands.

The value of the
services forests provide is not confined to developing economies. One
scientific assessment by the Pembina Institute has estimated the value
of the services in Canada's boreal forests - including flood control,
pest control by birds and carbon sequestration- at just over US$90
billion a year.

Moving forward
The report suggests
that knowledge, vision, enabling conditions and new investments are all
necessary to realize the full contributions of forests in a green
economy, which is based on a new economic paradigm.
"A major
issue is that green economies and associated policies will no doubt
apply differently across countries, depending on national circumstances,
priorities and capacities. Encouraging a transition to green economies
will require a broad range of financial, regulatory, institutional, and
technological measures. This is a specific area in which the capacity of
developing countries has to be strengthened." says Jan McAlpine,
Director of the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat.

The
Green Economy "in the context of sustainable development and poverty
eradication" is also one of two key issues that will be addressed at the
Rio+20 Summit next year in Brazil.

The public and the private
sector both have an important role to play in accelerating the
transition to a Green Economy. On the one hand, governments must promote
policy and technical support to ensure forest-based investments.

On
the other hand, business and financial institutions need to invest in
forest projects, and provide independent and verifiable risk assessments
and risk insurance services, amongst others.

Eduardo
Rojas-Briales, Chair of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF)
said, "Supportive social, legal and institutional settings are key to
the sustainable management of natural resources. Optimal land use,
further life cycle analysis, ecosystem landscape management, and
governance are all key themes that will help unlock the full potential
of forests in creating green economies."

Additional investment is
also required for up-front capacity building and preparatory work,
continued implementation of mechanisms that compensate for opportunity
costs, reforestation, and payments for forest protection.

Some
examples of successful policy interventions noted in the report
highlight the benefits and positive results of sustainable management of
forests.

Forest related interventions in Costa Rica
have led to economic growth and a dramatic increase in forest cover. In
1995, forest cover in the country was 22 per cent, but by 2010, it had
recovered to 51 per cent of the country's land area.

Community
Forest Management is the second largest forest management system in
Nepal, where forests cover more than 40 per cent of the land. It has
contributed to restoring forest resources in the country, and turned an
annual rate of decline in forest cover of 1.9 per cent during the 1990s
into an annual increase of 1.35 per cent between the period of 2000 and
2005.

The restoration of natural mangrove forests in
Vietnam for US$1.1 million resulted in annual saving of US$7.3 million
in sea dyke maintenance.

These examples, amongst
others, illustrate the significant socio-economic returns that forests
can provide. With additional investments and policy reforms, the forest
sector can provide a foundation for building a low-carbon,
resource-efficient and socially inclusive green economy.

The
Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) is a voluntary arrangement
comprising 14 international organizations and secretariats with
substantial programmes on forests (CIFOR, FAO, ITTO, IUFRO, CBD, GEF,
UNCCD, UNFF, UNFCCC, UNDP, UNEP, ICRAF, WB, IUCN). The CPF's mission is
to promote the management, conservation and sustainable development of
all types of forest and to strengthen long term political commitment to
this end. CPF members share their experiences and build on them to
produce new benefits for their respective constituencies. Joint
initiatives and other collaboration activities are supported by
voluntary contributions from participating members. For more
information: www.fao.org/forestry/cpf/en/

In 2010, renewable energy supplied an
estimated 16% of global final energy consumption and delivered close to
20% of global electricity production. Renewable capacity now comprises
about a quarter of total global power-generating capacity. Including
all hydropower (estimated 30 GW added in 2010), RE accounted for
approximately 50% of total added power generating capacity in 2010.

In 2010, existing solar water and space heating capacity increased by an estimated 25 gigawatts-thermal (GWth), or about 16%.

The report was commissioned by REN21 and produced in collaboration with a global network of research partners. (www.ren21.net).

"The
global performance of renewable energy despite headwinds has been a
positive constant in turbulent times", says Mohamed El-Ashry, Chairman
of REN21's Steering Committee. "Today, more people than ever before
derive energy from renewables as capacity continues to grow, prices
continue to fall, and shares of global energy from renewable energy
continue to increase."

Global solar PV production and markets
more than doubled in comparison with 2009, thanks to government
incentive programmes and the continued fall in PV module prices.

Germany
installed more PV in 2010 than the entire world added in 2009. PV
markets in Japan and the U.S. almost doubled relative to 2009.

Globally,
wind power added the most new capacity (followed by hydropower and
solar PV), but for the first time ever, Europe added more PV than wind
capacity.

Renewable energy policies continue to be the main driver
behind renewable energy growth. By early 2011, at least 119 countries
had some type of policy target or renewable support policy at the
national level, more than doubling from 55 countries in early 2005. More
than half of these countries are in the developing world.
At
least 95 countries now have some type of policy to support renewable
power generation. Of all the policies employed by governments, feed-in
tariffs remain the most common.

Last year, investment reached a
record $211 billion in renewables - about one-third more than the $160
billion invested in 2009, and more than five times the amount invested
in 2004.

Money invested in renewable energy companies, and in
utility-scale generation and biofuel projects increased to $143 billion,
with developing countries surpassing developed economies for the first
time, as shown in the GSR's recently released companion report, UNEP Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2011.
China attracted $48.5 billion, or more than a third of the global
total, but other developing countries also experienced major
developments in terms of policies, investments, market trends, and
manufacturing.

Beyond Asia, significant advances are also seen in
many Latin American countries, and at least 20 countries in the Middle
East, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa have active renewable energy
markets, the report says.

Developed countries still led the way in
investment in small-scale power projects and R&D during 2010.
Germany, Italy and the US were the top three.

"The increased
renewable energy activity in developing countries highlighted in this
year's report is very encouraging, since most of the future growth in
energy demand is expected to occur in developing countries," says
Mohamed El-Ashry, Chairman of REN21's Steering Committee.

"More
and more of the world's people are gaining access to energy services
through renewables, not only to meet their basic needs, but also to
enable them to develop economically", says El-Ashry. Renewable energy in
even the most remote areas is ensuring that more of the world's people
are gaining access to basic energy services, including lighting and
communications, cooking, heating and cooling, and water pumping, while
also generating economic growth through services such as motive power.

Further highlights from the Report:
*Renewable
capacity now comprises about a quarter of total global power-generating
capacity and supplies close to 20% of global electricity, with most of
this provided by hydropower.
*Developing countries (collectively) have more than half of global renewable energy power.
*Solar PV capacity was added in more than 100 countries.
*The top five countries for non-hydro renewable power capacity were the United States, China, Germany, Spain, and India.
*In
the United States, renewables accounted for about 10.9% of U.S.
domestic primary energy production (compared with nuclear's 11.3%), an
increase of 5.6% over 2009.
*In the United States, 30 states (plus Washington, D.C.) have Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS).
*China
led the world in the installation of wind turbines and solar thermal
systems and was the top hydropower producer in 2010. The country added
an estimated 29 GW of grid-connected renewable capacity, for a total of
252 GW, an increase of 13% compared with 2009.
*Renewables
accounted for about 26% of China's total installed electric capacity in
2010, 18% of generation, and more than 9% of final energy supply.
*Brazil
produces virtually all of the world's sugar-derived ethanol, and has
been adding new hydropower, biomass and wind power plants, as well as
solar heating systems.
*In the European Union, renewables
represented an estimated 41% of newly installed electric capacity. While
this share was significantly lower than the more than 60% of new
capacity in 2009, more renewable power capacity was added in Europe than
ever before.
*The EU exceeded its 2010 targets for wind, solar
PV, concentrating solar thermal power, and heating/heat pumps.
Countries including Finland, Germany, Spain, and Taiwan raised their
targets, and South Africa, Guatemala, and India, among others,
introduced new ones.
*Developing countries, which now represent
more than half of all countries with policy targets and half of all
countries with renewable support policies, are playing an increasingly
important role in advancing renewable energy.

REN21 is also
launching its Renewables Interactive Map - a streamlined tool for
gathering and sharing information online about developments related to
renewable energy. www.map.ren21.net.

REN21 is the global renewable energy policy network that provides a
forum for international leadership on renewable energy. Its goal is to
bolster policy development for the rapid expansion of renewable energies
in developing and industrialised economies. REN21 Secretariat is
supported by both The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and
The Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

BNP Paribas is one of a handful of financial institutions and investment
funds entering the risky but potentially lucrative market for “credits”
in the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
program, or REDD. A credit represents one ton of carbon dioxide not
emitted because a forest was left standing.

Last September, BNP’s commodities derivatives arm provided $50 million
to Wildlife Works, a conservation project developer designing a
portfolio of ventures to reduce deforestation and degradation in Africa. BNP also acquired the rights to buy as many as 1.25 million carbon
credits over the next five years from Wildlife Works’ flagship project
in the Kasigau corridor in Kenya. The program aims to protect more than
202,000 hectares, or 500,000 acres, of forest, secure a wildlife
migration corridor between two national parks and bring sustainable
benefits to local communities through education, jobs for rangers and an
“ecofactory” producing organic cotton clothing.

But such carbon credits have found demand only in a small, thinly traded
voluntary carbon market, as countries struggle to agree on new, binding
emissions cuts under U.N. climate talks.

“There is growing impatience with the multilateral process, not only
from practitioners such as myself, but more importantly, from many
forest countries,” said Christian del Valle, environmental markets and
forestry director at BNP Paribas in London.“Thus far the multilateral process has not delivered meaningful
on-the-ground results, and forests continue to be lost because the only
accessible price signal today indicates they are worth more cut down
than standing,” he said.

A full U.N. climate deal could create a market through which rich,
polluting countries could buy carbon credits, paying for forest
protection in the process, just as they pay for clean energy projects
now under the Kyoto Protocol’s existing carbon offset market, the Clean
Development Mechanism.

So far, the only demand for forest carbon credits has been in the
voluntary carbon market, worth $424 million last year, which lacks the
binding rules of the Clean Development Mechanism.

Governments like those of Norway, Germany, Britain and the United States
have pledged $6.5 billion to help poorer countries develop systems to
reduce emissions from deforestation, but that is seen as only a halfway
measure. Private-sector involvement will be essential.

Recent studies suggest that between $17 billion and $33 billion per year
is needed to achieve a U.N. Environment Program recommendation to halve
global emissions from deforestation by 2030. “We are not going to get the scale of what we need without participation
by the private sector,” said Donna Lee, who was the lead U.N.
negotiator on REDD for the United States and is now a consultant for the
advisory group Climate Focus....

https://www.cdproject.net/en-US/WhatWeDo/CDPNewsArticlePages/Building-a-21st-Century-Communications-Economy.aspx
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) outlines an
opportunity to forge sustainable economic growth in a new paper, Building a 21st century communications economy. While global oil demand is projected to grow by a fifth by 2030 1 (equivalent to using the entire U.S. strategic oil reserves in a month 2),
this new paper presents an alternative; creating a low carbon,
low-environmental impact economy through greater investment in advanced
communication networks.

Paul Dickinson, executive chairman of CDP, explains, “We
are at a historic moment where nations will either enter into a contest
for finite resources, where everyone is guaranteed to lose, or we can
enter into a golden age of economic growth, without the serious threat
of climate change, built on the enormous potential of communications.
The 19th century saw massive advances in agriculture and the 20th
century was defined by manufacturing. We have the opportunity to define
economic growth in the 21st century by advanced communication networks
where economic opportunity is not limited by time, distance, or
geography.

“Economic value will increasingly reside in bits and bytes3, rather than molecules and atoms of products and commodities, in effect, decoupling greenhouse gas emissions from growth.”

With
increased competition for natural resources, the most competitive
economies of tomorrow will be those that revolutionize the way we live
and work, generating increased value using fewer resources. Investment
in broadband – expanding access to next generation technology to
communities across the U.S. and across the globe – has the potential to
stimulate job creation and increase access to goods and services
including healthcare and education whilst reducing greenhouse gas
emissions. This is particularly true for rural communities and areas
that are currently not served or underserved by broadband access.

CDP
analysis shows that the average Information Communications Technology
(ICT) company generates over $4,000 of net income per company for every
metric ton of CO2 equivalent emitted. This is double that of the
Consumer Staples 4 sector and seven times that of the Materials sector 5, showing it’s a sector that is well positioned to continue to grow in a low carbon, resource efficient economy. 6

However,
the ICT sector’s greatest impact is likely to be through enabling
companies across sectors to drive energy efficiencies and transform
working practices, thereby increasing their net income per metric ton of
carbon ratio. The Smart 2020 report 7
showed that ICT could help reduce emissions by an estimated 13 to 22
percent from U.S. business and see gross energy and fuel savings of $140
billion to $240 billion 8. Employment in this area is predicted to increase by 450,000 jobs between 2004 and 2014 9.

Dan Esty, Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) affirms, "ICT
can help customers and business to become more sustainable. By acting
as the platform, ICT can be used to drive emissions reductions...instead
of having people fly for a 2 or 3 hour meeting, it is much more cost
effective and sustainable to have the meeting via telepresence.
Telecommuting enables employees to work from home and reduces the carbon
footprint."

To realize the potential greenhouse gas savings,
access to broadband is critical – if devices are not reliably connected
to the network they will not be adopted. Currently, 14 million people
in the U.S. lack access to high speed internet. As U.S. President Barack
Obama said in 2010, “This new era in global technology leadership
will only happen if there is adequate spectrum available to support the
forthcoming myriad of wireless devices, networks, and applications that
can drive the new economy.”10

Robust
global accounting of emissions is integral to achieving a successful
21st century communications economy. Danny Quah, from the London School
of Economics says, “ICT and broadband can play an important role in
helping advanced economies decrease their carbon emissions. But advanced
economies also outsource to the emerging economies the production and
carbon emission of what they consume. A truly dematerialized economy is
not limited by geography and physical boundaries, and therefore neither
should the accounting for the associated carbon emissions.”

Dickinson concludes, “The
world as we know it is changing, to a world that is cleaner, more
inclusive and unconstrained by where you live. The key to unlocking the
potential of all these technologies is an efficient and reliable
communications network. We have an opportunity to grow our economy with
less environmental impact, and fundamentally transform the way we live,
work and play.”

1 On average more than 20 million barrels a day by 2030, reaching a level which is more than twice Saudi Arabia’s production
2 International Energy Agency, 2009. World Energy Outlook. Available from http://www.iea.org/textbase/nppdf/free/2009/weo2009.pdf Last accessed June 16th, 2011.
3 Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, February 1997, vol. 37 no. 1, pp. 49-56.
4
GICS category - includes manufacturers and distributors of food,
beverages and tobacco and producers of non-durable household goods and
personal products.
5 GICS category - includes chemicals, construction
materials, glass, paper, forest products and related packaging
products, and metals, minerals and mining companies, including producers
of steel.
6 CDP analysis
7 U.S. addendum to the seminal Smart 2020 report by the Climate Group.
8
The Climate Group, 2008. Smart 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in
the information age. United States Report Addendum. Available from http://www.smart2020.org/_assets/files/Smart2020UnitedStatesReportAddendum.pdf Last accessed June 16th, 2011.
9
Berman, J. 2005. Industry Output and employment projections to 2014.
Bureau of Labor Statistics Monthly Labor Review. Available from http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/11/art4full.pdf Last accessed June 16th, 2011.
10 Cited in Middleton, J. 2010. Obama plans to free up 500MHz of spectrum. Available from http://www.telecoms.com/21309/obama-plans-to-free-up-500mhz-of-spectrum/ Last accessed June 16th, 2011.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)www.cdproject.net is an independent not-for-profit organization holding the largest
database of primary corporate climate change information in the world.
Some 3,000 organizations and cities across the world’s largest economies
now measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate
change strategies through CDP, so that they can set reduction
targets and make performance improvements.

This
is according to a new study by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP),
“Cloud Computing: The IT Solution for the 21st Century,” conducted by
independent analyst research firm Verdantix and sponsored by AT&T.

According
to the study, companies plan to accelerate their adoption of cloud
computing from 10 percent to 69 percent of their information technology
spend by 2020.

The report finds that a company that adopts cloud computing
can reduce its energy consumption, lower its carbon emissions and
decrease its capital expenditure on IT resources while improving
operational efficiency.

Stuart Neumann, Senior Manager at
Verdantix, commented: “The study also analyzed the business impacts of
transferring an essential business application—human resources— to the
cloud and shows such an investment could give a payback in under one
year.”

In addition to a predicted aggregate, annual carbon
reduction of 85.7 million metric tons by large U.S. companies, cloud
computing can:

... Paul
Stemmler from Citigroup commented: “Carbon reduction is one driver, but
not the primary driver. The primary driver is time to market. Developers
used to take 45 days to get new servers, but in the internal cloud
infrastructure that we operate in our own private network, it takes just
a couple of minutes.”

Verdantix conducted in-depth interviews
with multi-national firms—including Aviva, Boeing, Citigroup and Juniper
Networks— in diverse sectors. All study participants had adopted cloud
services for at least two years. Many of the firms interviewed reported
cost savings as a primary motivator, with anticipated cost reductions as
high as 40 – 50 percent.

Paul Dickinson, Executive Chairman of CDP, welcomed
the ICT sector’s leadership in driving sustainability: “A large
percentage of global GDP is reliant on ICT – this is a critical issue as
we strive to decouple economic growth from emissions growth.....” This study follows the release of a recent paper, “Building a 21st Century Communications Economy.”
Tying these studies together, Dickinson commented: “The communications
economy of the 21st century has the potential to generate more economic
value with less environmental impact, and ICT companies will lead the
way.”

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)www.cdproject.net.is an independent not-for-profit organization holding the largest
database of primary corporate climate change information in the world.
Some 3,000 organizations and cities across the world’s largest economies
now measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate
change strategies through CDP, so that that they can set reduction
targets and make performance improvements.

Monday, July 25, 2011

[In the past three years the Brevoort], a 1955 co-op tower in Greenwich
Village] ... has spent nearly $6 million. The projects
ranged from the prosaic, like new windows and light bulbs, to the
ambitious, like green roofs, converting from heating oil to natural gas, and installing a $3.2 million cogeneration plant capable of powering the 20-story building in a citywide blackout.

The extent of the work and the amount spent in such a short time are
unusual. But board members say the building is now a model of energy
efficiency and proudly note that other co-op boards have come to see
what it has done.
...
In April, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced new heating oil
regulations for thousands of buildings across the city. Now those
buildings — most of them apartment houses — are reviewing their heating
systems.The new rules require that by 2015, about 10,000 buildings switch from
No. 6 heating oil, the cheapest but also the dirtiest fuel available, to
No. 4 heating oil. Some buildings need to make the change as early as
next July. But since buildings will be required to use either No. 2 oil
or natural gas by 2030, many building owners are contemplating making
the larger change now to avoid two separate conversions. Natural gas
currently costs about 30 percent less than fuel oil.

City officials say that the soot pollution created by the 10,000
buildings that use No. 6 oil exceeds the amount created by all the cars
and trucks in the city. At a seminar given by the Real Estate Board of
New York earlier this month, a representative from the mayor’s office
said that while converting to natural gas can be expensive, switching
from No. 6 to No. 4 oil could cost a building as little as $7,000. But
contractors and consultants in the audience challenged that figure,
saying it represented a best-case scenario — a building whose equipment
needed only minimal upgrading.

David Kuperberg, the chief executive of Cooper Square Realty, which
manages about 450 buildings in New York City, described the extent of
the work and the amount invested at the Brevoort as “the exception by a
long shot.”

He said his company had urged the owners of its buildings to make
similar changes, “but there is a great deal of skepticism and people
just don’t believe the savings are there.” Most co-op and condo boards,
he said, would rather make incremental changes and take on one project
at a time.

About 100 of Cooper Square’s 450 buildings use No. 6 oil. “We’re in
front of all our boards now,” offering advice and information on what
needs to be done, Mr. Kuperberg said. Wherever possible, Cooper Square
encourages gas conversion. But “the initial cost scares off a lot of
buildings,” even though “we could prove the economics.” He pointed out
that the savings from gas conversion could pay for the upfront costs in a
few years.

The changes at the Brevoort did not come without pain.

Vigorous efforts were made to unseat board members in the last two
elections, with some unhappy residents likening members to harsh and
unyielding prison wardens.

But opposition candidates came shy of the votes they needed in both
elections, and Ms. Nardone was re-elected this spring to her sixth term.

The switch from No. 6 oil to natural gas cost the Brevoort $225,000. It
involved replacing the burner on the boiler, removing two 20,000-gallon
oil tanks, and installing equipment to draw gas from the available
Consolidated Edison pipeline. The board expects to save as much as
$70,000 a year in fuel costs....

Property managers and environmental experts say that gaining access to
gas pipelines maintained by a utility like Con Ed or National Grid could
be a huge hurdle for some buildings. As Isabelle Silverman, a lawyer
with the Environmental Defense Fund, put it, “The infrastructure to
bring gas lines to the buildings definitely has to be built out, and we
don’t know how long that would take.”

City officials say that is why the imminent rule change is for No. 4 oil
and the natural gas requirement does not kick in for 20 years.

Most buildings are already hooked up for cooking gas. But long stretches
of pavement may need to be ripped up to connect a building to the
pipelines for heating gas, which are larger in diameter. “When you can
get it and how much it will cost depends on where your building is
relative to the gas line,” Ms. Silverman said.

Of the roughly 100 residential buildings managed by Rose Associates, 6
are in the process of converting to natural gas. J. Brian Peters, a
senior managing director at Rose, said that “the due diligence on this
really pans out, and there is a track record that shows the savings and
benefits are real.” Getting permits and physically converting the equipment takes four to
six months, he said, but how quickly Con Ed can hook up a building is
less certain.

For the 15-story co-op at 910 Park Avenue, converting the burner to
accept either No. 2 fuel or gas took less than six months and cost
$73,000. The work was done in October, but the building burned No. 2 oil
all winter, while it waited six months for Con Ed to connect its gas
line.

Jerry Cohen, a board member, ... ran a spreadsheet and it showed that
in three years, the savings would give us payback on the cost of the
conversion.” The board approved the plan unanimously. Con Ed waived the $23,000 cost of connecting Mr. Cohen’s building to a
pipeline that runs along Park Avenue because the building committed to
using Con Ed’s gas exclusively....
He said that a friend at a building on
Madison Avenue had recently learned that connecting to a pipeline would
cost $1 million.

Joseph McGowan, the manager for gas sales at Con Ed, said that Con Ed
would install up to 100 feet of
pipe free to a building with five or
more apartments, and could waive the fee for more, depending on the
utility’s anticipated revenues from the building.

Hypothetically, he said, the cost to connect a building at, say, Fifth
Avenue and 42nd Street, to the appropriate pipeline along First Avenue
could be as high as $3 million. “Just think about having to trench along
42nd Street for that many blocks,” he said.

But if Con Ed found that seven additional large buildings along that
route also wanted to convert to gas, “the revenue from all those
buildings could take care of the cost.”

It has taken the co-op board at 12 East 97th Street about a year to
weigh the benefits and figure out the cost of gas conversion. John
Slattery, the vice president of the board, said the building was now
close to signing contracts and expected a bill of $100,000 to $200,000.
“All of this goes agonizingly slow,” he said, “because like most boards,
we only meet once a month.”

Mr. Slattery says the building is trying to decide whether to go with a
gas-only contract or to spring for the option of using both oil and gas.
“It seems like most major property holders are doing dual fuel,” he
said. “Maybe they’re just belts-and-suspenders people, but in today’s
world, who knows what’s going to happen with the price of gas or oil?”

Myriad calculations and unknowns complicate the decision making. “The
real problem is there are a lot of variables out there,” said Paul
Gottsegen, the president of Halstead Management, which manages about 200
apartment buildings. “At this point, people are scrambling for the best
ideas and the cheapest and greenest options.

To encourage gas conversion, utility companies are creating incentive
programs and the state this year provided $6.5 million in grants to
about 240 buildings. Francis J. Murray Jr., the president of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, said applications poured in and the money was spoken for shortly after the fund was announced in April.
“The demand clearly exceeded what was available,” Mr. Murray said. The
agency is seeking other funding sources and hopes to offer more grants
next year.

The state agency also provides grants for cogeneration plants, which
burn gas to produce both heat and electricity, and this year distributed
$20 million to 19 projects across the state, including three
residential buildings managed by Rose Associates. Mr. Peters of Rose
said that for certain buildings, it made sense to put in cogeneration at
the same time as a gas conversion.

“It depends on the scale and the unique character of the property,” Mr.
Peters said, adding that one of Rose’s rental properties, London Terrace
Gardens, installed cogeneration about six years ago and saves about 15
percent on electricity annually.

At the Brevoort, while most residents approved of gas conversion, many
felt the cogeneration system was unnecessary, even though the building
received a $500,000 state grant for the work.... Debt went from about
$3.5 million to $11 million,” he said. “Maybe we should have gone
slower.” The building this year issued a $2 million assessment, which works out
to about $10,000 for the owner of a two-bedroom apartment.

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Environmental News Network www.ENN.com
Press Release dated July 20, 2011

Thursday, July 7, 2011

http://www.nrdc.org/media/2011/110615.asp
Digital video recorders (DVRs), cable
and other pay-TV boxes cost American consumers $3 billion a year -- $1
billion to operate when in active use and an additional $2 billion while
inactive but still running at near full power, according to a new study by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Also known as set-top boxes, these devices squander the equivalent
annual energy output of six coal burning power plants (500 MW) because
they are not equipped to power down when not being used.

“Set-top boxes are the ultimate home energy vampires, silently
sucking significant amounts of energy and money when nobody’s using
them,” said Noah Horowitz, senior scientist at the NRDC. “The consumer,
who pays the electric bill, deserves technologies without hidden
costs. At a time when everyone is trying to cut waste from our budgets
and electric grid, service providers shouldn't saddle their subscribers
with boxes that unnecessarily squeeze their wallets.”

The NRDC study, Reducing the National Energy Consumption of Set-Top Boxes, alsofound
that today’s average new cable high-definition digital video recorder
(HD-DVR) consumes more electricity annually than the new flat panel TV
to which it’s typically connected and about 40% more than its basic
set-top box counterpart. In contrast, cell phones, which also work on a
subscriber basis with a need for secure connections, are able to use
extremely low levels of power when not in use – primarily to preserve
battery life.

There are approximately 160 million set-top boxes installed in US
homes, or the equivalent of one box for every two Americans. These boxes
consume as much electricity each year as that consumed by the entire
state of Maryland and are responsible for 16 million metric tons of
carbon dioxide emissions per year.

National set-top box electricity use is growing as more consumers
shift from basic boxes to DVRs, which provide consumers with a
convenient way to record and playback shows. A typical household with
one DVR and one basic set-top box uses approximately the same annual
electricity use of one new refrigerator. These devices still run at
near full power when the consumer is neither watching nor recording a
show. Hitting the on/off button merely dims the clock or display and
does not significantly reduce the amount of power used.

Dramatic energy savings can be readily achieved by having set-top
boxes automatically go into a low power mode when people are neither
watching nor recording a show. This functionality is beginning to
appear in boxes used in Europe. To achieve this in the United States,
pay-TV service providers such as Comcast, Time Warner, Direct TV, Dish
and the phone companies – who control set-top box installation,
configuration, software updates, repair, refurbishment, retirement and
resale service – could work with manufacturers to develop and deploy
more energy efficient devices.

Likewise, to make sure their interests are being met, consumers can
request their pay-TV service provider (e.g. their cable or satellite
company) supply them with set-top boxes that meet ENERGY STAR Version
4.0.

“We’ve improved the efficiency of all sorts of electronics – from TVs
to video game consoles,” said Horowitz. “It’s just as possible to
improve the efficiency of our DVRs and other pay TV boxes. But they’re
not going to build a better mousetrap unless we, the consumers, demand
it.”

The
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) www.NRDC.org is an international nonprofit
environmental organization with more than 1.3 million members and online
activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental
specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources,
public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City,
Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Livingston,
Montana, and Beijing.

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Environmental Valuation & Cost Benefit News covers legal, academic, and regulatory developments pertaining to the valuation of environmental amenities and disamenities, such as clean air, trees, parks, congestion, and noise. We apprise the reader about ways in which costs and benefits are measured, and the results of empirical studies. We hope that this information will allow public and private organizations to comprehend the risks and benefits of various actions, help disputants to resolve conflicts equitably and efficiently, and improve the quality of public policies. We will only discuss issues related to the empirical quantification of private and social costs and benefits and damages, and summarize information from daily newspapers, academic journals, legal publications, court decisions, professional newsletters commissioned studies, and on-line services. This newsletter is dedicated to the principle that all policies place values upon life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We believe that more information, explicit specification of assumptions, and rigorous analysis can help our society to better meet these ends. This site will increasingly serve, in conjunction with others, as a valuation database. We will include a wide range of studies, including non-environmental reports, because omission of a factor effectively values it at zero, and biases decisions. Heavy traffic has caused several site crashes. We are attempting to correct these problems. Apologies for any inconvenience.